Forked is a new night of spoken word at The B-Bar, organised by Apples and Snakes, the UK's leading organisation for performance poetry. The very first Forked took place on 15 Jan 09, was hosted by the lovely Mama Tokus and featured performances from three poets, kicking off with Irish poet Aoife Mannix telling us tales of her grandmother, of growing up holidaying in caravans and of that moment when you ask your partner the dreaded question, "Do I look ok in this?" Her lilting accent lent a musicality to her recital and although she clutched copies of each poem throughout, I was impressed with her ability to remember each poem word for word, never stumbling.
The same couldn't be said for the second act, Paul Marshall. London born, Penzance dwelling Paul was much more comical than Aoife, but he definitely struggled to remember the words of some of his own poems, halting a couple of times and thoroughly amusing the audience. As mentioned on the blurb on the flyer, his poems were a confusion of words and images and he lightened the mood.
Forked definitely saved the best till last, as they brought out super feisty London poet Salena "Saliva" Godden. She's been described as Lily Allen's filthy older sister, which is probably a decent description of her. Half Irish and half Jamaican, she announced as she stepped onto the stage, "I've just had some rum, so you're probably going to get the Jamaican half of me..." She launched into a set of poems that would have a lapdancer blushing - all sex and stuff - which for all their naughty content were fantastically written and performed with the greatest of ease. You can see why she's worked with musicians like Coldcut, Alabama 3, Simple Kid, her witty, crafted, punky style could inspire anyone. And I know for sure that a couple of the people I went with woke up with the phrase, "Lick it! Lick it like you want it!" thundering around their heads... Definitely worth the trek down to the Barbican in the rain! And the Thai noodles were fab.
www.applesandsnakes.org
No comments:
Post a Comment